


The Anima, the Dae(mon)

by further_the_dreaming



Category: Final Fantasy XV, His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Because how else will you ensure most dae will settle 'properly', Daemon Prejudice, Daemon Settling, Disease Progression, Gen, How to create an MT, Starscourge (Final Fantasy XV), Subtle manipulation of the Education system, and Daemon Practicalities, by daemon!AU I mean the one where your soul manifests as an animal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 04:27:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20718077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/further_the_dreaming/pseuds/further_the_dreaming
Summary: "His twentieth birthday passes, and Noctis’ dae remains unsettled."Wherein starscourge is the only known disease that affects the HDM daemon souls. As the disease progress, it causes the daemon soul to merge with its human counterpart, to ultimately become one of the FFXV daemons.[Note: the tags will update with the appearance of the rest of the cast.]





	The Anima, the Dae(mon)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WerewolvesAreReal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WerewolvesAreReal/gifts).

> It's funny but one of the reasons I started reading the 'His Dark Materials' series was because the incredible daemon-AUs written by WerewolvesAreReal. I wasn't planning to try and write one myself, but then I finished FFXV recently and then I found myself imagining little details, which became a list... and... well... 
> 
> (So, yeah. Here is a gift to WerewolvesAreReal, even though I'm not sure if you've ever played or heard of FFXV, but know that your influence is out there.)

It has been said that daes were once called daemons, too. And then the first scourge struck and the resulting beings were more demonly than anyone could had ever foreseen.

\--

If you asked Dr Sania Yaegre to summarise the concept of dae souls, she would state that daes were a metaphysical representation of one’s identity that settle into the shape of the animal that most closely encapsulates that individual’s personality traits and core values. In the Crown City of Insomnia, at least, daes fall into certain main species: canines, felines, primates, birds, rodents and miscellaneous.

And yes, Dr Yeagre would confirm that you would see a lot of sabertooth and havocfang daes if you walked into a bar of Lucian Hunters, but would remind you that Eos-specific predator species amount to only 5% of the Lucian dae population and 10% of Eos dae population. Arguably Eos’ crustacean-type predators, like stoneshears, ought to be compatible with Hunter life-styles but mostly if the Hunter never intended to stray too far from water.

Yes, Dr Yeagre would also confirm that in the Lucian territory _outside_ the Insomnia capital, the category of ruminants and other sizeable species like anaks, garulessas and dualhorns, largely dominate the dae population, for the pattern of migration dictates that people with daes incompatible with a cramped cityscape, would naturally feel more comfortable in open plains, and those who grow up on farms would have greater exposure to such creatures that they would be more likely to try those forms for themselves.

“You find that most daes are mammalian in form,” Dr Yeagre would say as she leans against her Gaiatoad, “and mammals have accounted for 85-95% of daes in Eos at any one time in history. Currently, the number is closer to 88%, after the Tenebrae bird-type daes fell drastically following Niflheim occupation, and the next generation showed a trend of settling with less controversial mammalian species.”

And if asked for any comments regarding said-settling, Dr Yeagre would say, “It’s a curious time, now, curious indeed. Before the Scourge, settling occurred at the age of puberty, or perhaps earlier in the event of trauma. But the reoccurrence of the Scourge outbreaks and general military unrest mean that children as young as four may be exposed to a severe trauma that causes their daes to settle. But this is a technological age as well, so young people can suddenly scroll across a bestiary of different species and their habits, and maintain an identity crisis even into their late-teens.”

She would snort a laugh, at the mention of a government proposal to restrict access to certain entries in the bestiary to discourage the daes of minors from ever having the idea to settle into forms ‘unsuitable to city-living’, as other nations once tried.

“Maybe with a database at their fingertips, kids would finally figure out that this Mister over here isn’t a Gigantoad. Ever thought about that?” she would ask as her dae mutters something incomprehensible beside her.

And the interview would conclude because she’s a very busy researcher, with lots of (better) things to do.

\--

His twentieth birthday passes, and Noctis’ dae remains unsettled. She flickers between forms, a stalwart Lucian emblem on his shoulder in the official photographs, preening in his lap during long car trips, soaring and diving at opponents in battle and on one memorable fishing trip, she shifted into something resembling a baby Sahagin, gleefully snapping at the tail of a twisting crag barramundi. Gladio has long been tempted to joke how she may eventually end up being a marine-type creature (ever since that last occasion), but wouldn’t dare to actually put that idea in Noct’s head. Afterall, Insomnia’s infrastructure cannot accommodate for water-bound to nearly the same extent as Accordo does (there is a reason for Altissia’s intricate gondola system), and although Noct’s dae could be carried within his armiger, (which is theoretically a part of the King’s soul empowered by the magic of Crystal, anyway), such transport mutes one’s soul bond to a point of mild discomfort, but great disconcertion.

Thankfully, Noctis’ dae seems to prefer winged forms, which Ignis (not-so) subtly encourages (“have you considered how many birds eat fish, Noct?”) and Prompto likes to point out how pretty Noct’s dae looks as she coordinates her swoops with Noct’s warping. Sometimes, they’d play a game where she’d shift into as many forms as she could think of at the top of her head, and they’d note which forms repeat the most often.

(“Annndd she’s a raven again.”

“She certainly makes a lovely raven, Noct-”

“-Oh! Imagine if she became a thunderoc! A thunderoc, Noct! She’d automatically be, like, twice as tall as you are standing up ahahaha- ow! Those ribs were already bruised, dude!”)

But still, she hasn’t settled, and sometimes, Noct wonders.

(How can he comfortably rule a country, when he apparently isn’t even comfortable with himself?)

\--

Another year of Niflheim occupation passes, and the Oracle retains her kindness and her composure. By common consensus, the dae of Lady Lunafreya is either the perspicacious Pryna or humble Umbra, but there has never been official confirmation as to which one. It is also uncertain whether her dae had settled to mimic an Astral messenger, or whether the Astral messenger decided to take the form of her daemon to make itself more approachable to her. After all, Lady Lunafreya is commonly seen in the company of Gentiana, yet another Astral messenger, and it is a testament to her skills as Oracle that no matter how many daes afflicted with scourge she coaxes back into health, neither dogs overtly weaken.

People take comfort from that, and she never gives word suggesting otherwise.

\--

If Prompto ever stopped to think about it, he could probably rule out, at least, the dog that cannot be Lunafreya’s dae- not after he was able to care for ‘Tiny’ as he would for any other injured pet. And like Lunafreya, he would also be intimately, uncomfortably, horrifically aware of certain aspects of the starscourge disease progression that are not nearly as commonly known about within city bounds.

Namely, the scourge isn’t merely some chronic, fatal viral condition that causes a spreading discolouration in the dae’s body (and other symptoms similar to internal bleeding). No, that’s only Phase 1. Phase 2 is when some daes will attempt to merge with the human: a different sort of self-sacrifice, before the dae turns to dust. Phase 3 is when the human, devoid of the balancing companionship of their dae, would emotionally and genetically ‘destabilise’, ultimately transforming into a dreaded daemon. Lunafreya’s healing can only aid the afflicted in Phase 1. And the second two Phases tend to be so rapid, most do not even realise what is occurring.

You see, it’s not that a scourged dae would transform into some daemon that immediately consumes its human form. It’s the _merge_ that both kills the humanity of the resulting being, and leads to a one-track creation of a daemon.

This is why many daemons, like necromancers and Ronin, have almost entirely-humanoid forms. And it’s also why many _other_ daemons are half-human half animal, with the death claw once a human with a crustacean dae, and a Cerberus formerly consisting of a human and a canine dae. But, as nearly all non-primate mammals succumb to the scourge’s fatality before they even think of initiating Phase 2, it is incredibly rare to stumble across a Cerberus.

But is this coincidence really so fortunate?

\--

In the public eye, MTs have no apparent daemon.

For plausible deniability, Niflheim attempted to spread rumours that the ‘human’ members of the ‘otherwise robotic’ MT army have, and have always had, arachnid or insect daes.

And Prompto hates it. He hates that the researchers deliberately confined themselves to only showing the child-MTs images of snakes, spiders, primates and jelly-fish- because these were considered to be more ‘stable’ configurations. After all, Eos had a high enough incidence of these kind of daemons that there was even a sense of ‘diversity’ among them (as especially observed in imp-variations and flan-variations). 

So Prompto is sickeningly well-aware that the creation of an MT involves injecting infected daemon dust into a host person in order to encourage pre-emptive merging, and that the use of chemical stabilisers alongside carefully measured injection concentrations can produce a Phase 2 scourge-state that can be slowed for nearly a decade.

There are probably other parts of the process too, but Prompto doesn’t know what they are (because -thank the Astrals- by that time, he was free, free, freeeee.)

Sometimes he wonders if the Lucian spy chose to rescue him, rather than any of the other numbered child experiments because he had the Astral-blessed ‘luck’ to have a mammalian daemon.

Because Prompto’s daemon is a field mouse, just like the one that scurried in the corridors. It barely suits him, he thinks, but it settled with the trauma of his first dust-injection. He hates it sometimes too, not because the Lucian kids used to tease the fat boy with a mouse daemon, but because it reminds him of _that place_. (He hates his so-called ‘human’ self too, so that’s equal opportunity soul-shaming for you.)

But he’s so, so grateful that his dae is not one that Niflheim tried to choose for him. And his dae understands how that relief far overwhelms Prompto's occasional complaints on how he wished the dae settled as a chocobo, or maybe a dog like Tiny. And sometimes after particularly bad nights, Prompto clutches his dae and inspects its ears, its snout, its tail – reassuring himself that his dae didn’t manifest as a lab rat, either.

(Had Prompto’s dae ever spoken any desires of its own, it would have said how it hoped that one day, Prompto would accept it, and accept himself. One day. Just maybe.)


End file.
